ly to the twelve and
Paul. There is no sign that the apostles, whether the twelve or others,
held any official position in the Church. That they had a large measure
of authority of course goes without saying, but it depended always upon
their brethren's recognition of their possession of the divine gift of
apostleship, and the right of Churches or individuals to test their
claims and to refuse to listen to them if they did not vindicate their
divine call was everywhere recognized. Witness, for instance, Paul's
reference to false apostles in 2 Cor. xi. 13, and his efforts to
establish his own apostolic character to the satisfaction of the
Corinthians and Galatians (1 Cor. ix. 1 ff.; 2 Cor. x. 13; Gal. i. 8
ff.); witness the reference in Rev. ii. 2 to the fact that the Church at
Ephesus had tried certain men who claimed to be apostles and had found
them false, and also the directions given in the _Didach[=e]_ for
testing the character of those who travelled about as apostles. The
passage in the _Didach[=e]_ is especially significant: "Concerning the
apostles and prophets, so do ye according to the ordinance of the
gospel. Let every apostle when he cometh to you be received as the Lord.
But he shall not abide more than a single day, or if there be need a
second likewise. But if he abide three days he is a false prophet. And
when the apostle departeth let him receive nothing save bread until he
findeth shelter. But if he ask money he is a false prophet" (ch. xi.).
It is clear that a man who is to be treated in this way by the
congregation is not an official ruler over it.

Between the apostles, prophets and teachers no hard-and-fast lines can
be drawn. The apostles were commonly missionary prophets, called
permanently or temporarily to the special work of evangelization (cf.
Acts xiii. 1; _Did_. xi.), while the teachers seem to have been
distinguished both from apostles and prophets by the fact that their
spiritual endowment was less strikingly supernatural. The indefiniteness
of the boundaries between the three classes, and the free interchange of
names, show how far they were from being definite offices or orders
within the Church. Apostleship, prophecy and teaching were only
functions, whose frequent or regular exercise by one or another, under
the inspiration of the Spirit, led his brethern to call him an apostle,
prophet or teacher.

But at an early day we find regular officers in this and that local
Church, and earl